Page 62 of The Heat is On

Oh, Skye.But yes. She’d helped him see it.

Just because he looked like a criminal on the outside didn’t mean he didn’t have light and hope and—and forgiveness on the inside.

And God on his side, in the valley of the shadow.

“I’m going to keep my promise to you, Darryl. I’m going to take you to your wife. But Buttles only tracked you down here to kill you.”

“Naw,” Buttles said. “Darryl’s my friend. He knows that’s why he didn’t die in prison.”

Darryl nodded. “That’s right.” Still, he seemed to be considering Rio’s words. Until he looked at Buttles. “You shoot him, and we’ll take her with us. Just in case. There’s a chopper on the way—we could take that.”

Rio went cold.

“That’s my boy. Always about the transportation. But shooting him will create too much attention. I have something better.”

Buttles grabbed the blood pressure cuff off the nearby wall unit and Velcroed it around Rio’s throat. Started to pump.

Oh no.

Darryl smiled. “Nice. So, while you choke, I’m going to just walk out of here with your girl.”

And then Darryl kissed Skye’s neck.

Rio let out something feral and dark, but the hold on the blood pressure cuff had tightened, cutting off the blood supply to his brain.

He wasn’t going to last long.

Rio’s gaze flickered to Skye’s just for a second, and…what?

Skye had stepped to Darryl’s side and only then did Rio realize that…she’d listened to him. Back at the cabin, when he’d told her how to get out of a choke hold. Except, well, even then he’d been hoping that she wouldn’t need the information.

Yes. Except—no. Because even if she got away from Darryl, Buttles would shoot her.

There was no stopping her, however, because her hand balled into a tight fist.

Right in the soft parts, honey. Make it hurt.

His air had left him, the room going hazy.

He met her eyes and she looked at him with the expression she’d had in the woods one moment before she kissed him. Deliberate.

Brave. Strong.

He renews my strength.

Rio reacted just as she swung her arm back. Heard Darryl cry out as Rio rolled, landed on his back, and slammed his foot into Buttles’s knee. Heard a crack, but didn’t wait for Buttles to fall, just kicked hard up, connecting with his chin.

Buttles slammed back into the wall.

The gun dropped to the floor.

Rio wanted to scrabble for it, but his vision had started to splotch, big gray, black swatches.

He heard grunts and saw Buttles struggling up.

With everything he had, he flung his foot at Buttles’s face.

The man howled, blood spurting.

---